It all went a bit pear shaped

well I have halloween treat #3, not photographed and not blogged. Also not eaten (darned slimming world)

I do however have a seriously ill pussy cat, as you all know my sweet Thalia is in intensive care at the vets after undergoing serious surgery. This has overcome my halloween food plans a little. Luckily I never told the kids I had a plan to do something each night so they are happy with the things we have managed to make and eat together. I do have some other ideas up my sleeve so I will show you them when they are done. Halloween or not! I can do cakey eyeballs in November right??

Missing you meaty, can't wait to have you all smily and sleepy on my bed.I sure hope those whiskers that were sad and drooping are back up and proud when I get to bring you home.

I have lots of kisses to make you feel better and all of my thread is now locked up!

K wants you to come home from the "cat hotel" but I promise she wont cuddle you like this for a while.

we love you , get better xxxxxxxxxxx

Halloween feast #2

Today we made Mummy dogs. The kids enjoyed making and eating these! They are basically hotdogs wrapped in strips of puff pastry to resemble mummies' bandages.


what you need

I had 8 hot dogs and cut them in half

I used pre rolled puff pastry and cut it into strips

A little milk for washing over the pastry before cooking.



Then you just wrap the strips of pastry around the dogs
 

this takes much concentration

Baste with a little milk.Then pop onto a baking tray and into the oven, I am not sure how long they cooked for , maybe 15 mins?
 

Cook until golden and then enjoy. My kids dippped them into tomato ketchup (which if you were going to be trully gross you could call blood. I didn't because K is a bit chicken hearted about creepy stuff)

Halloween feast #1

I have decided to do a week long Halloween feast. Every day I am going to do at least one Halloween themed meal, snack or treat.

Last night I made jacko lantern style oranges filled with strawberry jelly/jello.

sorry for the rubbish pic I couldn't get a good one at all

They went down very well!

Even the photo face seal of approval!

we have no pics of Fraser eating his unfortunately, Murray was upstairs cleaning up a halloween horror that the cat had left! yuck!

And I would also like to say that my kid actually does have clothes and also we do own a hairbrush! But what can I say? It certainly doesn't look like it from the most recent pics!

The truth behind the facade

Lor mentioned to me the other day about how sometimes my posts seem like they are written by someone else. How they don't bring across the true chaos that is my house! (ok my words not hers, but I think this was the general gist ;) )  so for Lor I have added in the pics of the kids having a full on sword fight with the glow in the dark bones. And yes my daughter was decorating wearing only a top and her pants! Also you can clearly see in the background all of the washing that was drying inside that was cleverly left out of all other kitchen pics taken that night ;)

Look at his face! Surely it shouldnt be encouraged to try so hard to hit your 3 year old sister?

She is ready to retaliate with a biiiiig swing!

Halloween decorating fun

Yay! It is almost halloween.

 We had great fun on Sunday , we headed out for a nice walk to look for treasure. What treasure were we seeking? We were looking for conkers! This is something we do every year, it brings back fond memories from our own childhood.
Someone forgot the camera (ahem, twas I) so we have no pics which is a shame as we had a huge haul! The fact that it had been veeeery windy overnight and it was slightly raining meant that loads had blown down and we were the only ones there! yay!

we have 2 pumpkin buckets filled with this fabulous autumnal treasure

Murray was horrified to find that I had never played a game of conkers in the playground. I used to just keep them in my pocket and love how pretty they looked! I was certainly not up for smashing them! what a waste! Such a girl!

Once we were home and suitably warmed up, it was deliciously dark  due to the changing of the clocks. We dragged out the boxes of halloween decs and set to it! There were some seriously scary monsters out that night!!

I would also like to introduce you to Frank! He becomes part of our family for Halloween

We love you Frank!

I took this one because I htought it looked like Frank was pointing down at K! She of course enjoyed the opportunity to show off her photo face again!

It is only

67 sleeps to go! wow!! Anyone else excited????

it is also only 12 sleeps until I am allowed to play Christmas Music! yippee!

What makes you keep reading?

When you look at a blog for the first time, what is it that sucks you in and makes you go back?

Firstly I have to like the way it is written, I like it to be simple and self explanetory, I like to drop in on a random blog and feel at home straight away.


Most of the blogs I have come across have been found through the buttons and blog rolls on other's blogs. I have added a few onto my blog but always feel weird! I don't know these people! Maybe they don't want to be on my blogroll! So there are a few that I still only have in my bookmarks, I need to be trully addicted before it warrants being added on here  for all to see.

Then comes the most important ones! I immediately go to the Christmas category! If there isn't one then I become really scary and stalkerish! I go back through all of the November and December posts to find recipes and craft ideas! And just to see if these people are as pathetic full of the festive spirit as I am.

I seriously lose whole evenings of my life reading about other people's lives. Hmm there is something wrong about that I think .............

 Obviously I am not a total loser (ok well maybe I am ) but I also have people I actually  know in Blogland! So I keep reading theirs to find out all about them and their families! I already know if they are as crazy as me ;) They are the only people who read mine! There are prob a few reasons for this!
1- They are the only ones who have the address!
2- I am ungoogleable!
3- Anyone who may have randomly come across this blog by reading a comment I  have made, probably took one look and went-Yep this woman is a crazy, Christmas loving stalker, who can't spell most of the time, really has nothing to say  except talk about how much she loves other people's blogs! Think I will be moving right along now ..........

Or maybe there is someone out there just as pathetic nosy as I am who also loves finding something new! They too may have a checklist of things to tick off before they keep reading! If you are one of those people who look back at November and December archives before anything else, make yourself known! We could trully be friends! Also you would make me feel a whole lot better about myself! LOL

I found it!

Today we took Murray in to work. We managed to turn this into a day of  fun with the kids. After a trip to Asda (our sad relative of Walmart for all the US girls)  to pick up a few extra halloween decs.

We enjoyed some fine dining c/o Mc Donalds!

And then we enjoyed a while at Camperdown park.


Guess what I found there!


I have been waiting for it here...........................

I was so excited to see some fallen leaves as we drove in that I stopped to take a pic out of the car window!  In the process I held up a car behind me! Oops

Slowly

But surely

the trees

are beginning to turn!

Look at what else I found! These crazy people who seem to follow me around!

The kids in action

We have been having some really mild weather here this month so we have been enjoying plenty of outside time. Yesterday we had a blast at our favourite local park. Here are some action shots of my munchkins

I don't even know! But she looks like she is flying! This HAS to be fun!

The name's Bond. James Bond.

Such stealth.

Playing tag, K was "it".

Our favourite photo face at the moment!

Got the smile in the end!

Giving thanks

In the UK, traditionally we don't celebrate Thanksgiving. I think we should! What could be more wonderful  than a celebration, bringing family together to give thanks for all that they have been fortunate for.

Murray and I have decided to have a Thanksgiving celebration this year. It probably wont be on the right day but we feel like so many wonderful things have happened this year for us and we should give thanks.

A few of the things we are thankful for

• Our health and the health of our children
• Our new house. We are so fortunate to be sitting in our new home. We are thankful to everyone who helped us to get here and for those who made it possible for us to buy our forever home.
• In the summer of this year my Father in Law suffered from a life threatening illness. With the help from a fast acting ambulance crew and some fabulous doctors he has now reached the stage in his recovery where he has returned to work. He has also just had the all clear from a recent test and we hope he will never have to encounter this experience again.
• I am thankful for finally being able to get my own childcare business off the ground, this has happened with minimal problems, I have a house full of happy children and I didn't have to go through any times of financial hardship, it all happened seamlessly with the end of my previous job.
• I am thankful for my children, they have been wonderfully resilient and understanding in this year of change and upheavel. There have been moments of tears and frustrations, but in the end they have come through smiling with their true Characters shining through.
• I am thankful for my friends and family who get me through all of the huge and tiny things that happen everyday.
• I am thankful for my loving and hardworking husband. Everything he does he does for us. Thanks sweetheart xx

I am looking forward to enjoying my favourite part of the year with my favourite people and what better way to start it off but with a huge turkey feast??

Not sure this guy would agree ..............................

Singing

Is there anything sweeter than a 3 year old who is so happy she just sails through her whole day singing, dancing and humming little tunes.

Yesterday morning I was in the shower and my little shadow was sitting playing at the bathroom door singing her little heart out.

My heart just swells when I hear her

Twirling girl

The first cut is the deepest

Does anyone else get that sick- flip flopping butterflies in the stomach-heart hammering fear when they get ready to make that first cut of fabric?

I love the sight of neatly folded piles of fabric, I would love to have a huge cupboard where I can store piles and piles of the stuff!

Alas I don't have a cupboard and can't afford to hoard my stash so I must cut it!

And use it!

And hopefully not ruin it in the process!

I have 3 or 4 projects in my mind...............as of yesterday I have all of the materials I need .............. why have I not started yet?

 I am excited to start! But making that first cut is just too hard!

A monsterously good Saturday

Today the kids and I set to some Halloween crafting. A few days ago I came across a tutorial on Not so idle hands for some super cute Halloween lantern jars.

We made one each! Fraser made a spooky green monster, K made a great pink monster and I made a pumpkin. I took some pics to make a mini tutorial but it isn't nearly as good as the one in the link ;)  so I may just leave it to the expert! I will, however, show off our handiwork!

The only thing we changed was the black faces. I didn't have any black paper so I just got the kids to draw out a face and then I coloured it in with a marker and cut it out. It worked well but I will definitely invest in some black paper for if/when we make some more!

All we need to do now is buy some little battery operated tea lights for the kids so they can have them in their own rooms. I think I may trust myself to put  a real candle in mine!

Hmm the original tute showed them to be finished off with green paint around the top, think I may use some raffia too once we have them painted , but I will wait until I have the battery tea lights! LOL we do NOT need an indoor bonfire for Guy Fawkes!

Sew busy!

Haha see what I did there??

I have been busy sewing some hoodie towels for the kids ( and one for an upcoming Birthday present) I used a tutorial from Deanna's blog (just Deanna ---> over there on the blogs list) sorry I am not clever enough to work out how to link it here.

Anyway they are actually really easy to make and because I used huge bath towels they fit both of the kids, Fraser can still be totally wrapped in his which is great!

here's my sweet model, she was too busy being a supermodel to stand still and also is digging a toungue out pose at the moment!

Into October..

and it is getting colder! woo hoo! We all needed coats on this morning!

Only 84 sleeps til Christmas! It's going in fast!